Business

RCMP seeking two men in alleged $1.5M investment scam

TORONTO - The RCMP is looking for two men after it says more than 160 Canadians lost $1.5 million in an alleged investment scam.

Investigators say people in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Alberta were enticed to invest money through BHF Waste Management Limited Partnership in Barrie, Ont., between 2006 and 2008.

Police say the investors thought they were buying mining rights from a business in Montana, but were actually paying an inflated price to a shell company registered in St. Kitts and Nevis, and money was being funnelled to two offshore bank accounts in the Bahamas.

The RCMP says several people benefited from the laundered money or were paid wages from investor funds.

Police have arrest warrants out for Douglas Scott, 66, of both Toronto and Cranbook, B.C., and Claude Taillefer, 63, of Shanty Bay, Ont., near Barrie.

The RCMP has charged the pair with fraud over $5,000, fraud by false pretence, conspiracy to commit fraud, money laundering, possession of property obtained by crime and participating in a criminal organization.